Product Description
AVAILABLE MAY 1ST 2025 – PRE-ORDER NOW!
Having escaped with his family to Western Sydney in the 1970s from a military dictatorship in Uruguay, Juan, is in his seventies and a widower. He misses his wife, does not know how to be alone and has become dependent on his daughters, particularly Lola, who lives closest. Lola has her own battles living with an anxiety disorder and in her difficult relationship with her Uruguayan musician husband and two sons. Unlike Lola, her younger sister, Betty has abandoned her Uruguayan roots and is living an alternative lifestyle in Mullumbimby. A third daughter, Malena is living in Italy with her husband. Fed up with Juan’s dependence, particularly on Lola, Betty decides to place a personal ad in a Spanish paper on his behalf without asking him, hoping that a new partner may help him to move beyond his grief and dependency. Instead, he finds new love walking his dog, a widowed Aboriginal lady, Frances. Their blossoming relationship becomes a trigger for Juan, Lola and Betty to recalibrate how they measure their belonging across cultures.
‘The work presents a stunning and original overview of Latin communities in both America and Australia, exploring how the family escape the civic-military dictatorship in the 1970s and find a home among the South American community of Western Sydney. Now, decades later, each member of the family reckons with the tension between the rich meaning they draw from their heritage and the human need for new experiences. Salsa in the Suburbs is poignant in its intersectional dialogue, and inspiring in its well-developed characters that carry humour, trauma and Uruguayan history with immense strength.’ – Magdalena Ball
